Are you sick of seeing plastic waste and garbage on the streets, sidewalks and even in the greenest parks while jogging or walking? And do curse who throw those garbage? Plogging can be a solution.
A few years ago, Swedish joggers, tired of running into garbage in parks, squares and sidewalks, invented a win-win sport: Started by Erik Ahlström in 2016, plogging is an eco-friendly exercise which people pick up trash while jogging or brisk walking as a way to clean up litter and also take care of their health.
Plogging is a contraction of plocka upp (Swedish for ‘picking up’) and the word ‘jogging’. The concept is to take advantage of a run to pick up trash found on the way. Of course, you can be a walking, hiking or climbing plogger. No worries, there is more than enough garbage to collect. You can even collect tons of litter while climbing to Everest.
Plogging has numerous advantages
- Health and exercise. Plogging for half an hour will burn at least 288 calories on an average as compared to just 235 calories from regular jogging as it adds some extra moves like squatting or bending your body.
- Fight against plastic pollution. The litter that nobody bothers to pick up will eventually end up in rivers and oceans. Plogging will prevent the litters from ending up in the oceans and killing biodiversity.
- Awareness and sensitivity. Last but not least, the most important side of plogging is, in fact, its best asset: To draw people’s attention to pollution and plastic waste issues. To create awareness. By promoting personal health and fun, plogging is a good way to reach people in much more efficient way than many regular awareness campaigns.
So, grab a pair of gloves and a re-usable bag and start a win-win ‘healthy you, healthy planet’ plogging. You can -still- curse the ones throwing those thrash! Enjoy!
